[General] Does "out of the air" here mean "unexpectedly" or it mean "from above"?

[jacob123]

Does "out of the air" here mean "unexpectedly" or it mean "from above"?

Does "out of the air" here mean "unexpectedly" or it mean "from above"?

The judge stated on oath that Frau Rothe
put him in communication with the spirits of his wife and father, who
said things to him which the medium could not possibly have invented,
because they dealt with matters unknown to any mortal. He also
declared that flowers of the rarest kind were produced out of the air in a
room flooded with light. His evidence caused a sensation.

"The History of Spiritualism," by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[PeterCW]

Re: Does "out of the air" here mean "unexpectedly" or it mean "from above"?

It is a stock phrase meaning "as if by magic" although Conan Doyle believed that it really was magic.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: Does "out of the air" here mean "unexpectedly" or it mean "from above"?

The judge stated on oath that Frau Rothe
put him in communication with the spirits of his wife and father, who
said things to him which the medium could not possibly have invented,
because they dealt with matters unknown to any mortal. He also
declared that flowers of the rarest kind were produced out of the air in a
room flooded with light. His evidence caused a sensation.

jacob123, I have again had to edit post #1 so that the text spreads right the way across the box. I have left your original in post #1 and I have shown it above in the quote. Below is how it should look. Please make sure you lay your posts out like this in future.

The judge stated on oath that Frau Rothe put him in communication with the spirits of his wife and father, who said things to him which the medium could not possibly have invented, because they dealt with matters unknown to any mortal. He also declared that flowers of the rarest kind were produced out of the air in a room flooded with light. His evidence caused a sensation.